


To Catch a Fire Child

by lafemmedisparu



Category: Backstreet Boys, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Gundam Wing
Genre: F/M, Multi, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-03
Updated: 2015-05-03
Packaged: 2018-03-28 20:45:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3869188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lafemmedisparu/pseuds/lafemmedisparu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Orlando Bloom, normal guy one day–the next, he’s spouting fire out of his eyes and making people hot with one look. In this adventure, all that Orlando has known about the most important person will be challenged. And in the end, he must accept his destiny: being the Prince of Nova.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prelude

The call had come at six o’clock, just before a rerun of _Seinfeld_. Someone was sick, and they requested his services. And he was going to go. There was need, and they needed him. And with that Orlando Bloom had a method to keep the lights on another month. 

Beside him at the time was his friend Angelia Buchannan. They had been lounging on his couch with a couple of TV dinners and cans of Coke. Angelia, who was an elementary and middle school English teacher at Kaminari Academy, had decided to take a break from grading essays and book reports and join her fellow Englishman on his couch. 

At that moment, they were trying to figure out what to watch on TV and it wasn’t working out very well. 

“The news?” Orlando scoffed as she snatched the remote from him. 

Angelia looked at him, blue eyes opaque. “I’m just curious about what’s going on nowadays. Can’t I be curious? Besides, I have to keep up with current events. I’m a teacher, remember?” 

“Then buy a newspaper.” He took the remote back. “There’s a game on tonight.” 

Angelia glared at him. “How dare you inhibit me in my academic pursuits for the sake of an asinine football game?” 

Orlando shrugged. “I just change the channel.” 

Angelia threw the balled up cellophane from her TV dinner at him. It bounced off his arm. 

On the TV, a redheaded anchor with bright eyes and big teeth appeared beside a picture of a man with bleached hair and sunglasses and another of a woman with long dark hair and heavy makeup. Orlando set his teeth and tried not to groan. _“And in entertainment news, it seems that AJ McLean from the Backstreet Boys has made headlines yet again for getting back together with--”_1  

“Are we actually watching this?” Orlando asked. He suddenly couldn’t help it. For some reason the image on screen sickened him. “I mean, really, Annie. This is bloody drivel.” 

“Fine fine. What do you want to watch? I think there’s a show about monkey reproduction on the National Geographic channel. Oh no, wait! I think you want to peruse the Weather Channel! Oh we do love the music on the Local on the 8’s!” 

Orlando’s response to Angelia’s sarcasm was a pillow to her blond head. 

“Oh, stop it would you? I was just messing around.” She sighed. “I brought a movie instead. Maybe we should watch that.” 

Before Orlando could approve or disapprove, the phone rang. Angelia frowned a bit as Orlando reached over her to pick it up. 

“Hello?” Orlando’s eyebrows wrinkled in concentration. “Yes, this is he…oh yes, the work study program? I applied a few weeks ago…” His face relaxed. “There’s a position?” He frowned again. “Oh that’s really too bad…” He didn’t talk for a moment but nodded as if listening. “Yes, I will be in the office in the morning. Thank you.” With that he hung up the phone. 

Angelia stared at him. 

“What?” 

“Well? What happened?” 

Orlando took that opportunity to change the channel. “That was someone from Kaminari Academy. It looks like they have a new work study program. They’re doing this substitute teacher thing.” 

“Hmm.” Angelia frowned thoughtfully. “I suppose it’s a nice program, though. The only objection I have is that sometimes the teachers and students get, eh, attached.” 

Orlando stared at her a moment. Then he kissed her on her forehead. “Angelia,” he said huskily, “you must know that you are the only woman in the world for me. All those little girls in their little school uniforms are so…unfulfilling.” 

Angelia, who was used to his flattery, tilted her head. “And you would know because?” she prompted. 

“Angelia love, you don’t have to stick your head in an oven to know that it’s hot.” 

“And I don’t have to stick my head in your mouth to know that what’s coming out is bullshit.” 

Orlando couldn’t help but laugh at that. While Orlando was laughing, Angelia took the remote back and turned it onto MSNBC. 

Orlando stopped laughing. “Wait a bloody minute—” 

Angelia flashed her blinding smile and Orlando sat through the news for another thirty minutes. 

 

_* Meanwhile.... *_

 

“Did it work?” 

The girl turned off the reconstructed contraption that could barely be called a 21th century phone and turned to her younger sister. Her smile was sly, cunning. “Of course it did, _baka_. I always have the best ideas, don’t I?”2  

“Would you can it?” her other sister snapped. She twirled her coveted basketball on her index finger. “You’ve got one more phone call to make before you get all happy and junk.” 

The girl glared at her other sister. Before they could start a catfight, the younger sister broke in with her usual dose of calm. 

“Don’t you two start bickering,” she said gently. “Gel, make the rest of the phone calls so we can get going. We’re going to be traveling all night in this case.” 

“Gel” huffed. “Fine fine.” She picked up the receiver again and dialed a series of numbers. After what seemed an eternity, someone picked up. She pushed a button on the machine to make her voice come out like a man’s. “Yes, is this Dr. Charles Francis? Yes, this is the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes. You just won ten million dollars!” 

The other sister shook her head. “This is so evil.” 

* * * 

Angelia left a couple of hours later and told Orlando to go to bed immediately. Even though he tried, he found it difficult to go to sleep by lying still. He tossed and turned, his body rebelling against the fact that he had to be up at seven tomorrow. So he turned over on his back and counted sheep. 

He was asleep by fifty-seven. 

* * *

 

_He dreamed of nothing spectacular at first. He was walking through a pink forest. The leaves from the trees were everywhere, coloring the world in a rosy hue. He looked down at himself and found that he was wearing loose orange-red cotton. The breeze was warm and it ruffled his pants and shirt._

_A sound in the distance attracted his attention, and he followed it._  

 _A moment later, a unicorn_ _ 3 _ _galloped out of a patch of trees. Orlando tried to side-step the silver-haired beast but it seemed to be coming after him. Before he could yelp, it stopped. After whinnying, it nudged him with its horn._  

“ _What the bloody hell?!” Orlando uttered, alarmed. “What the hell do you want?” The unicorn nudged him again. It was pointing him in the direction of the break in the trees. Orlando sighed and told the unicorn—even though it seemed funny that he was explaining himself to a unicorn—that he was going through the trees. The unicorn nodded its head as if it understood. When Orlando looked at the unicorn bemusedly, it moved to nudge him again._  

“ _Okay okay okay. I’m going.”_  

 _The unicorn observed him leave, then galloped away._  

This is getting odd, _Orlando mused, and stepped through the break in the pink leaves._  

 _And he had a feeling that it was going to get even odder._  

 _There was a woman sitting on an orange blanket. She was wearing a long orange-red dress that left her shoulders bare for her long red hair to cover them._ _ 4 _ _Under her chin was a violin, and the melody that she played sounded as sad as a funeral dirge. As he stepped closer he found that her strangely colored eyes were devoid of tears._  

 _And even though that she was engrossed in her playing, she heard him approach. She placed the instrument on the blanket in front of her._  

“ _You’re here,” she said simply._

“ _Here?” Orlando was perplexed. “What do you mean? Where is ‘here’?”_  

 _The woman stood, her skirts falling to the ground. She was taller than he was. “I cannot tell you that now. The important thing is that you listen to me.” She placed her hands on his shoulders. “We need you.”_  

 _Orlando shrugged her off. “Need me? What the hell do you need me for? This is a bloody dream!”_  

 _The redhead shook her head. “No. This isn’t quite that simple, Orlando.”_  

“ _How did you know my--”_  

“ _That’s a silly question. We do not need those now. You have to listen—”_  

“ _No!” he exclaimed. “I don’t have to listen to anything. This is a silly dream. You don’t need me for anything.”_  

“ _But we need your help!” she told him._  

“ _How can I help you? It’s just a dream!”_  

 _The woman stood before him, chest heaving. He hadn’t of been so worked up, he might have propositioned her. She wasn’t bad looking._  

_In the next moment, she slapped him, erasing all thoughts of taking her on a midnight stroll out of his head._

_It took him a moment to recover from the shock and the pain. And in that moment, he realized that it was too real to be a dream. But it couldn’t be anything else but! That would be silly if it wasn’t._

_Figuring that the woman could help him, he tried to stand. But fire descended upon them with such suddenness that he hardly had time to blink._  

 _The fire swallowed the woman up first. She screamed with something that was beyond terror or pain; it was defeat. Pink leaves curled, turned black, then became ash. As Orlando scrambled for his life, he heard laughter. Frantically, he willed himself awake. He had to wake up. This was a fucking dream!_  

* * * 

When Orlando woke up in his bed, he was slick with sweat and shaking violently. 

The moon shone into his window like a calming light. It took him several minutes before he could move and catch his breath. He smoothed out the cover with a shaky hand then applied the same hand to his face. He sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the phone. In his frightened state, he contemplated calling Angelia, but it was two a.m. She wouldn’t have appreciated the wake-up call. 

 _I have got to get a grip,_ Orlando told himself, standing. He trudged to the kitchen for a glass of water and returned to his bedroom afterwards. He placed the glass beside him on the nightstand. He stared up at the ceiling again as he had a few hours before. Would he ever get back to sleep? 

It took him forty-five minutes, but he fell into a dreamless sleep to be undisturbed by flames. 

 _But he was not the only one who dreamed of fire that night._  

 

 

_**TO BE CONTINUED....** _

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Part One  
Oblivion**

**Chapter One**

It had been a long two months for Daniella Thomas. Not only had she flowed through three tumultuous relationships and had endured front-page photos of her kicking Bachelor Number Three in the balls, but she also had to contend with the fact that she was going to be alone to live out a tedious life of endless club-hopping. She had figured this out last night, in fact, after crashing half-drunkenly onto her bed after a foray into the depths of Soul Love Live.

When she got to sleep shortly thereafter, her dreams had started off just fine. She was in the middle of negotiating world peace at a UN conference wearing a glittery Versace dress when the dream transformed. All of a sudden, the room was devoured into flames. Danie fought her way to some kind of stable ground as it lurched around her, but all she could see was fire. A small figure screamed shrilly. Flames licked on Danie as she drifted toward the sound, but the fire thickened. Shadows enveloped the girl and Danie felt a strange dread. Feeling scared, she willed herself out of sleep. As she drifted upward to consciousness, she realized that something was not quite right. And she wasn’t alone.

She knew it was bad when a tall, redheaded apparition appeared before her very eyes.

Danie gasped, startled, then sighed. “Shit, you could have warned me or something.”

The redhead just looked at her, standing in her frighteningly erect posture. She didn’t blame Danie for being curt; she would have been the same if it had been herself lying in rumpled clothing in bed. “I did warn you, Daniella.” When Danie looked blank, she added, “Your dream?”

 _The fire. The girl. The shadows._  Danie sat up in her wrinkled orange top and rubbed her eyes. “Oh, that part.”

The redhead shook her head at Danie. “You know, I would have expected you to be up by now.”

“Look, not all of us are on 12-hour day like you seem to be,” Danie snapped. “I had a wild night. No big deal.”

The redhead crossed her arms. “But Daniella, it is a big deal. It is a big deal because you have missed something very vital.”

“Like what?  _The Early Show_  on CBS? Look, I don’t have the fucking time to be arguing with you. I have to have a shower. I smell like alcohol and cheap perfume. Now who the hell sent you?”

The redhead stared at her point-blank in the eyes. “Aidanne did.”

 _Oh shit_. It really  _was_  bad.

That was something worth listening to. Aidanne had been the Queen of the Sun a few thousand years ago and had died creating the Amulet of Nova, which was currently prostrate in one of Danie’s drawers. It was forbidden to use it. Danie could turn herself into Rotisserie Gold if she attempted to. But now that Aidanne had sent someone from the future to warn her of something, Danie had a bad feeling that it would see light before long.

Danie, sobered, started to climb out of bed and stopped instead to check her cell phone. No messages. Yet. “Why did Aidanne send you?”

The redhead sensing that Danie understood a bit of the danger that lie ahead, walked to the window. “She wanted me to warn you that there is an imbalance among you now. Something has happened with one of your allies.”

 _Usagi,_ was Danie’s first thought. But someone would have called her if that had happened. As Danie joined the redhead at the window, alarm overtook her. “Just come out with it!” she exclaimed.

The redhead remained calm. Her features, while they were identical to Danie’s, displayed calm. “Look out the window.”

Danie’s temper flared. “I don’t see why the hell looking out of the window–”

The redhead grabbed Danie’s head and pushed it up to the glass. Danie growled. Those future Senshi are some brute chicks.

“What do you see?” she asked.

God, here we go again. “Okay. I see Gracia Row. There are a family of three coming out of the ice cream shop, a woman reading a book, and a man trying to channel Elizabeth Taylor but getting George Michael–”

“What do you see?!” she demanded tersely, turning Danie’s head again.

“I see–”

_Oh holy fucking shit._

They were both dressed in black like servants of evil. The woman was leading while the man trailed behind. She wore makeup heavily on her face and had probably helped him with his. Her dark hair glinted brown under the light of the Sun while his was bleached blond.

She’d recognize that receding hairline anywhere.

“They’re coming here for you,” the redhead told her.

Danie, who was still shocked about seeing the two together, looked at her great-great-great-great granddaughter with wide eyes. “They’re coming here?”

“They will kill you if you do not transform now,” the redhead told her.

 _Kill you_  was a phrase that Danie understood. She reached into her nightstand drawer and produced a citrine-encrusted pen. Afterwards, she marched out the door, wondering why all the bad guys chose to come when she was recovering from clubbing the night before.

* * *

Meanwhile, some miles away, the bell rang at the prestigious Kaminari Academy to signal the beginning of the school day. All of the clocks in the building read eight o’clock sharp. The five hundred and some odd number students, dressed in uniforms, were ensconced in their desks, chattering about their weekends or religiously preparing for their teachers’ lectures.

However, in Kaminari’s only astronomy class, there was a bit of an uproar.

“Hey,” said one pupil. “Where’s our teacher?” Similar questions followed.

Sitting in the prime seat in the middle of the room, Shane Huntington the Third rolled his eyes and crossed his arms across his chest. All he could think about at that moment was the possibility that if he didn’t get an A in this damned class, Dr. Francis would have hell to pay.

What he didn’t realize was that he had said it aloud, until Tori Jiyuu glared at him and said, “You’re such a snob, Huntington.”

Shane appraised her with a cocked eyebrow. “My father is head of the board at this slum, so I believe I’m entitled to the fringe benefits. Unlike those on scholarship.” He said the word as if it tasted like moldy cheese.

Tori, who was on scholarship for her softball skills, chuckled sardonically at the remark. “And you know that your jerk-off of a father could be voted off of the board if anyone knew about the incident.”

 _That_ made Shane shut up.

A few students looked at each other, wondering what Tori meant. But no one had the guts to ask.

The door opened. The students looked up expectedly to find their teacher, a substitute–something. Instead they were greeted with the sight of a set of triplets. Shane raised his eyebrows at the sight of them. The first one with brown hair flowing past her shoulders haughtily walked past him and sat down in the seat directly behind him. The tallest one with the ponytail and Nikes took the seat behind her sister. The last one with short hair took the seat beside her big sister.

Tori didn’t miss a beat in speaking to them. “So you guys are new or something?” she asked excitedly.

The first one shrugged. “I suppose,” she responded in a bored tone, staring upon her nails as if they were the most interesting things in the world.

The last one sighed, exasperated at her sister’s rudeness, and addressed Tori. “Yes, we are new. We just moved here from–”

“Never Never Land,” quipped the first. “It’s a place you gotta see to believe.”

“Angelica–” began the second one.

“Hey. Leave me alone, Angelique. I was just telling a joke. Can’t I tell a joke?” demanded the one called Angelica.

“Would the both of you just can it?” said the third one calmly. “Class is about to start.”

With her strange genius sixth sense, it was if she knew the teacher was coming, because the door opened again just as soon as her triplet sisters closed their mouths. Of course, upon seeing the gray-haired, uptight principal leading their new substitute teacher, Angelica’s mouth immediately dropped back open. And so did several other girls’ mouths in the room.

“Gosh, he’s a major hottie!” Angelica whispered. “Looks like we came just in time…”

“Can it, Angelica!” hissed her sisters.

Principal Pitts glanced around the room upon hearing the whispering, his eyes narrowed and suspicious. The teens quieted down, mostly because they knew that Principal Pitts was quite unpleasant when scolding about decorum (and lord knew how teenagers hated to hear the mere utterance of the word, especially if they knew what it meant), and partly because they (okay, the girls really) wanted to know who the tall, dark, and handsome hunk was.

Pitts cleared his throat, then spoke. “Class, I hate to inform you that Dr. Francis once again has the stomach flu.” He paused for effect, and a few snickers from the affluent crowd snuck through along with a few jokes about Mexican food. Pitts glared in disapproval, then cleared his throat and continued. “He is going to be out indefinitely.” A few cheers to which Pitts did not respond. “Fortunately, you all will not get to miss out on instruction for this semester, as we have found a temporary replacement for our fallen Dr. Francis.” Pitts gestured to the lanky, dark-haired young man standing behind him. “Class, this is your new teacher, Mr. Bloom.”

The girls couldn’t help but chatter excitedly among themselves, already scheming on after-school study sessions and candied apples to get his attention. Angelica was imagining herself sitting in the cherry blossom tree grove with the cute Mr. Bloom as he was stroking her hair and telling her how beautiful she was–

“Gel!” hissed Angelique. “Would you pay attention?!”

Well, damn. Angelica sent her younger sister a glare and huffily got out her Hello Kitty notebook and a ballpoint pen. To her relief, Mr. Bloom was only introducing himself. Principal Pitts had left the classroom but not without giving them (particularly the girls) disapproving glances for their chatter about the cute new substitute. She placed her chin on her palm and dreamily watched Mr. Bloom talk. Ah, what an absolutely delicious accent he has.

“Well, Principal Pitts already introduced me,” Mr. Bloom began, “but I rather not be so formal. After all, I’m not much older than you, so I’d rather you call me Orlando.”

Angelica sighed dreamily. “Orlando,” she breathed. In front of her, Shane grimaced but remained silent.

“I’m from England, if you can’t already tell,” he went on. “I went to school both here and in England, and I graduated with honors from college just three short years ago. At the moment, I am continuing my education in drama at the university nearby. I teach part-time to keep the lights on the clothes on my back.”

“You certainly don’t need those,” murmured Angelica. A dark look from Angela and a shove in the back of the head from Angelique was the response.

A short-haired brunette from the affluent corner raised her hand.

“Yes… What’s your name?”

The girl began to speak, drawing the class’s attention. The classroom door opening again broke the hold the girl had upon her audience. They all groaned when Principal Pitts made another appearance, ushering Miss Takumi, the Academy’s guidance counselor, and a mysterious, dark-eyed girl into the room.

“Aw hell. It’s the Armpits again,” muttered a guy in the corner of the room.

“Just making sure things were alright” was Pitts’ excuse for bothering them. Miss Takumi sighed and shook her head when Pitts was out of earshot.

“Sorry, Orlando, but I’ve got another new student for you,” Miss Takumi said. She gently pushed the quiet girl toward Orlando. The girl just stared at her feet. “This is Felice. She just transferred in from–”

“Nowhere,” interrupted Felice briskly. “It doesn’t matter where I came from.”

If Miss Takumi was surprised, shocked, or ready to back-slap Felice for interrupting her, she hid it well. She handed Orlando a copy of Felice’s schedule with minimal chatter and patted the quiet girl on the shoulder, wishing her a nice day. Felice didn’t move. Miss Takumi left. Orlando perused Felice’s schedule idly then looked at her.

“Shakespearean Studies, huh?” Felice didn’t respond. She just blinked, looking uncomfortable. “You like Shakespeare?”

“I suppose,” Felice responded in an even tone. “Do you?”

Orlando brought a hand to his heart dramatically. “Ah, a girl after my own heart.” Felice raised an eyebrow. “Well, why don’t you take a seat so we can continue on with the complexities of astronomy?” He handed her schedule to her.

“Thank you.” And with that, Felice found a seat near the door. The brunette was now seething with anger, as her moment with Orlando was shattered by the arrival of…that girl.

Who was she? And why was she from “nowhere”?

The question burned on the brunette’s mind for less than ten seconds, but she filed it away for later. Meanwhile, Angelica Wolfe inwardly groaned with dismay because she knew exactly who the mysterious dark-skinned girl was.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Two**

Meanwhile, in a nice residential section at a two-story house with a sign that dubbed it “The Tiger House,” mayhem had manifested itself in the guise of wedding planning.

Everything seemed to be a mess. The flowers were being sent to a cathedral in Italy instead of a couple of blocks away. The fabric for the bridesmaids dresses was totally wrong and Jennifer Dunne would be damned if her bridesmaids walked down the aisle in polyester.

Jessica Thomas sighed, and massaged her throbbing temples. At this point, she figured that if she ever got married, she would elope. Getting married with an Elvis impersonator officiating the ceremony sounded like paradise to her at that moment. However, she had to concentrate on getting her cousin married first. And if it didn’t kill her, she would consider it a triumph.

In the living room of the Tiger House of which Jessica was part owner, several young women sat around scribbling on notepads or on cell phones trying to correct the wedding disasters. Ami Mizuno and Moira-Selene Thomas, who were in charge of sending the invitations, wrote in exquisitely neat hand the names and addresses of relatives on envelopes. Ami’s friends Makoto Kino and Minako Aino stuffed the envelopes and sealed them with a wet sponge. They passed them down to Evangeline, Jessica’s youngest cousin, and Usagi Tsukino, who placed stamps on them. Rei Hino stood by the window, arguing with the DJ about music. Jessica sighed and decided to let her handle that. In the corner, Claudia-Michelle, Jessica’s oldest younger sister, and Samantha Dunne, Jennifer’s big sister, went over seating arrangements with Cassandra, their oldest cousin, who owned Belvidere’s, the site of the reception.

All the while, the bride-to-be sat beside Jessica looking anxious.

“Why do I feel like I’ve been running a marathon every day for the last two months?” Jennifer asked, sighing.

“Because this whole damn thing makes you feel like a hamster in a damn cage,” Jessica offered. “We’re being controlled by the likes of lilies and cream puffs. If that doesn’t make you feel caged, I don’t know what does.”

Jennifer sighed again and looked at her watch. Danie was late. She was supposed to be going over the live music she would play at the wedding with Jennifer. It was now a quarter till one. Where was Danie?

The door burst open like a herald from the gods.

Startled, Jessica stood and went to the doorway of the living room. Jennifer followed her. Being nosy, Usagi, Makoto, and Minako leapt up in Jennifer’s heels.

 _“Dios Mio,”_  Jennifer murmured.

“Hermana, what happened to you?” Jessica demanded.

At the sound of the affectionate nickname, Danie lifted her soot-filled face and bared her teeth. “That motherfucking bastard turned on us,” she seethed.

“What?” the girls said in unison.

Before Danie could offer an answer, a woman appeared in the hallway behind Danie. Unlike Danie, her appearance was untouched. But she was grim.

“Fiona?” Jennifer said questioningly. “But–? What–?”

“I think we should all go into the living room,” Fiona suggested. “We can better discuss this sitting down. Sunfire needs rest.”

Danie snarled but allowed Usagi and Minako to lead her to a chair anyway. They all re-settled in the living room. Evie, upon seeing her cousin, ventured into the kitchen to retrieve the first aid kit. Ami and Moira-Selene sensed the tension and placed their pens to rest on the coffee table.

“Miss Fiona,” Moira-Selene started.

“I think you should let me explain,” Fiona broke in as Evie came rushing back into the room with the kit. “I came this morning at the bidding of Aidanne the first and Ingrid to warn you all about the coming danger.”

“Coming danger?” Danie spat. “Full of bullshit. It’s already here.” She hissed through her teeth as Evie applied alcohol to her wounds. “Alex turned evil on us. He’s pussy-whipped by that half-wit Amanda.”

“Alex?” Ami inquired.

“AJ McLean,” Moira-Selene clarified. She turned to Fiona. “I’m sure this has harmful ramifications, Miss Fiona.”

“Right you are, Miss Moira-Selene. If the balance is not restored, then bad things will happen. Unfortunately, we have not had this sort of thing to happen before, so we do not know what will happen next.”

“Then we must contact the rest of our allies,” Ami postulated. “That is the only thing we can do at this point if we do not know what we are in for.”

Samantha nodded. “That seems the right thing to do. It would be a good idea to find out if anyone else is affected.”

Jennifer bit her lip. “If things couldn’t have gotten any worse–”

“Hush, Jen,” Jessica interrupted. “This wedding will not be affected. I promise.”

“How can we make a promise like that?” Minako asked. “This problem is bigger than flower arrangements.”

“I know,” Jessica responded. “We’ll just have to get rid of Alex and Amanda quietly.”

* * *

The bell rang again an hour later, signaling the end of first block. Students leapt up out of their seats, glad that the first hour-and-a-half was over. Well, except in Orlando’s astronomy class. The guys hightailed it out of there trying to escape the stink of Orlando’s sexiness (or was that aftershave?), but the girls took their time leaving, lingering to talk to the cute new substitute teacher. Orlando was flattered, but, for fear for his job and his own skin, he remained polite to them and nothing more.

Most of the girls had left, but the Wolfe triplets lingered. Angelica stalked up to Felice’s desk and crossed her arms.

“Gee, don’t you come from the same place we come from?” Angelica asked Felice sarcastically.

Felice looked at her stonily. Meanwhile, Orlando, sensing the beat-down vibes (or what he thought were beat-down vibes), casually came up beside Angelique to stop whatever altercation that was about to ensue.

“Um, what’s going on here?” he asked. “If you ladies want to catfight, allow me a moment to get a couple of wet T-shirts or something.”

Angelica laughed a little too loud and a little too shrilly. Felice just blinked at him, then turned back to her books.

“Nothing’s going on, Mr. Bloom–I mean, Or-laaan-do.” Angelica drew out the syllables of his name languidly. “We just wanted to get better acquainted with Miss Antisocial over here.”

“Gee, I feel so special,” Felice muttered sarcastically. “I’ve been dubbed by Miss Status Glitterati.”

Angelica glared at her. Angelique shook her head and grabbed her older sister’s arm.

“Sorry Mr. Bloom, but we have to get going now,” Angelique said hurriedly. “We’ll be late for class. Come on Angelica, Angela.”

Angelica sputtered, but her tall athletic sister dragged her out easily. Angela followed demurely, trying not to show her continuous exasperation. Felice sighed and collected her belongings. She paused when she felt Orlando’s stare.

“Problem?” she asked.

“No,” Orlando replied. “None at all.”

Felice raised her right eyebrow again. How the hell did she do that?

“Okay,” Orlando contended. “Fine. Look, Felice–is it?” Felice gave him a stony affirmation. “If that young lady that just left here was bullying you–”

It was a rare thing to make Felice laugh, but Orlando didn’t know that quite yet. When she laughed at that moment, Orlando could tell that she didn’t do it as often as she should. Dimly he wondered about her past. Where exactly was she from? Who was this girl?

“Angelica Wolfe is not a bully,” Felice assured him. “At least not in the physical sense. That you don’t have to worry about.” She stood. “But I appreciate you looking out for me, Mr. Bloom. Real teacher-like and all.” She placed her books in her messenger bag. “Now, if you would excuse me, I have to make it to my next class.”

Felice strode out silently and blended into the students in the hallway. Meanwhile, a petite blonde sauntered into the empty classroom, looking upon Orlando expectantly.

“Angelia!” Orlando exclaimed. “What are you up to?”

Angelia Buchannan grinned at him, showing off two rows of white teeth. “Not much, love,” she replied jovially. “Just taking a break from class.” She frowned at him. “You having trouble on your first day?”

“Nah, not really.” He looked at Angelia sidelong while gathering his things. “What is it about girls that makes them fawn over guys like me?”

“Hormones, maybe?” Angelia chuckled and fell into step beside him as they left the room. “I see that your astronomy students have caught the nefarious teenybopper syndrome.”

“Or something. Luckily, it’s not all of them.”

“Well, for your sake, I hope so. The last thing you need is everyone drooling over your every word.” Angelia pinched his cheek. “You’re not that cute, Bloom. I don’t get what those girls see in you.”

Orlando pretended to be shocked and hurt. Angelia couldn’t help laughing at Orlando’s hang-dog look.

“Oh Angelia love, you wound me so,” he moaned.

She nudged him. “You love the beating.”

He grabbed her arm in earnest. “Oh Annie darling, forget that popstar bloke and come live in the Bahamas with me. We can live off of Sex on the Beach and coconuts forever.”

Angelia opened her mouth to laugh when a young girl ran into her and Orlando, breaking them apart. They were really more shocked than angry, however. Orlando glanced behind them, only catching a glimpse of long strawberry-blond hair and a purple blazer. Angelia had already shrugged it off and was chatting about lunch.

“Huh? What did you say?” Orlando asked.

Angelia looked to him, eyes dancing with mirth. “Thinking about the end of the day already, aren’t we?”

“No, but that is a nice thought.” He sighed. “You were saying something about lunch?”

“Oh yes…only that I had lost mine. I put it on top of my car hood this morning while I was loading those graded papers in my car and, well, I suppose you catch my drift.”

Orlando shook his head. “So I suppose you need lunch money now.”

Angelia raised her eyebrows. “How about paying me back for buying pizza last week? That would be nice, you know.”

“Fine, fine. I’ll pay you back. Lunch is on me.”

“Such a gentleman,” Angelia joked.

They turned the corner and came to the hallway where Angelia’s classes were located. Students slammed locker doors and chattered animatedly about everything and anything. At one locker, the door closed, and a girl slung her messenger bag over her shoulder.

Angelia stopped dazedly.

“Annie?” Orlando asked, a little concerned.

Angelia said nothing for a long moment. Orlando followed her gaze and saw Felice from his astronomy class. Felice walked past them without one glance in their direction. But Angelia’s face was white.

“Angelia–” Orlando began.

Angelia shook her head as if to shake herself out of a reverie. “Oh–I’m sorry. Were you saying something?”

“Is there something wrong? You looked really spooked a second ago. If there’s something bothering you that you haven’t told me–”

Angelia smiled thinly and shoved him along. “Oh hush, ‘Lando,” she interrupted him. “I’m fine. Go teach your next class. I’m sure all the girls are eager to get started.”

He could see the disquietude in her blue eyes but he didn’t press it further. He’d just ask her later. “If you insist, love.” He kissed her on the cheek in a sudden display of brotherly love. “Au revoir.”

“Au revoir.” Angelia sighed as she watched him walk away, feeling immensely heavy. She wished she could tell him her secret, but he wouldn’t understand that part of her, no matter how much he loved her.

She felt for the note that had been planted on her by the streak of strawberry-blond hair. She read the one line, and dread had her stomach plopping down to her feet.

_Annie, we’re here._


	4. Chapter 4

#  **Chapter Three**

A few days later, Minako and Rei ventured to Danie’s apartment and knocked on her door. There had been no answer when she and Jessica called her cell phone earlier that day. Remembering the events of the other day, Rei immediately had become worried. She enlisted Minako to accompany her as they were leaving work that evening.

“What do you think could be wrong?” Minako asked as Rei lifted her fist, prepared to knock.

Rei said nothing and shrugged. She lowered her fist and knocked on the door.

And when the door opened, their mouths dropped to their chins as a gust of cold air hit their bare arms and nyloned legs.

“Oh my,” murmured Rei.

Danie stood before them in a black bikini, holding an iced martini glass and a wide smile. Amid the low temperature, there wasn’t a goosebump in sight.

“Rei-chan! Minako-chan!” she greeted them. “Come on in. Want a martini? I’m making a Cosmo next.”

Minako broke out into semi-violent shivers. Rei glanced around at Danie’s apartment. Things seemed normal though there were no windows open as Danie would have normally had. Normally being the operative word. Danie pranced around the room fanning herself and sipping from her glass. Minako put her jacket back on and nearly buried herself in it.

“Um, Danie-san,” Rei began, “are you feeling alright?”

Danie giggled, a high-pitched whinny that was so out-of-character. “Oh Rei darling, I feel fine. On top of the world.”

A trembling Minako and a skeptical Rei shared a glance, then Rei spoke again. “Um, have Alex or Amanda come to bother you?” Rei inquired.

Danie giggled again. “Of course not! They’ve probably shacked up in some hut rattling a box spring. If the leaves are a-rockin’, don’t come a-knockin’!”

Rei felt sick. She could feel something was wrong. The fact that Danie was spouting clichéd bullshit just added verification to her theory. Meanwhile, Minako was turning blue.

“Danie-san,” Rei said with a bit more seriousness, “I think something’s wrong. Are you sure you’re alright? The air is on awfully high.”

There was a pause as Danie gulped down liquor. She waved her hand at the statement. “I’m just going through some strange PMS or something.”

“What kind of strange PMS do you mean?”

“Oh it’s nothing! Just been feeling a bit hotter than usual. When I took a cold shower today, it started boiling on contact with my skin!” Danie burst out laughing then.

“Wh-what?” Minako stuttered in full-out alarm. “But hu-humans d-d-don’t boil wa-w-water on their sk-sk-skin like that!”

Rei climbed to her feet and walked toward Danie. “Danie-san, we have to get you checked out.”

“Nonsense!” Danie trilled. “I’m fine!”

Rei grabbed Danie’s arm. When she did, she instantly found that Danie was indeed boiling hot. She took her hand back and looked at Danie squarely, violet eye to violet eye.

“Daniella,” she began, “we have to take you to the hospital. You have a fever.”

Danie’s eyes narrowed and she clenched her fists. Soon the martini glass ended up shattered on the wall, in broken pieces on the floor. Rei took in a deep breath and began to speak but a loud ploow! nearly had her ducking for cover.

“Mamma Mia,” Minako muttered, trying not to pee on herself.

Rei straightened up and turned around. The pot that had been holding some flowers that Danie had been growing was in a demolished mess on the ground. One of the flowers was still enflamed.

Danie, meanwhile, stared at the remnants in astonishment.

“Dios Mio,” she muttered. Sobered, she sat down on the couch with her large eyes wide. “I…I’ve never done that before.” She looked at Rei. “Something is wrong with me.”

Once the admission was out in the air and she figured that she wasn’t going to be killed, Rei took out her cell phone and pressed ‘1.’

* * *

At Angelia’s apartment a block away an hour later, Angelia heard her phone ring before Orlando returned from the kitchen with the popcorn and the beer. She glanced at the caller ID and decided to let the machine get it.

_“You have reached Angelia Buchannan. Please leave your name and number and I will make sure to get back to you. Toodles!”_

Angelia rolled her eyes and tried to forget that that greeting was created on a sugar-induced whim.

_“Angie, it’s Brian. We need to talk. Call me back when you get a chance.” Click._

Something like fear skimmed up her back. She didn’t know why, but she had a feeling that she shouldn’t return the call. Orlando strolled into the living room with a bowl. He sat down beside her and settled in, peeling off his socks and shoes. He offered Angelia her bottle. Angelia took it idly, not really watching the movie anymore. Orlando noticed this after some careful observation.

“Aw hell.” He placed his beer bottle on the table beside them. “Annie, what’s bothering you? You were fine a second ago. I thought watching _Dumb and Dumber_ always cheered you up.”

Angelia managed a small smile for his benefit more than her own. “I just…I got a strange phone call, that’s all.”

Frowning, Orlando reached over and pressed a digit into a button on the answering machine. Brian Littrell’s southern drawl filled the room for ten seconds, then the machine clicked off. Orlando fingered his growing facial hair and carefully picked words that would not send Angelia flying off the handle.

“Angelia love, I thought you two were on hiatus,” Orlando said in an even tone.

Angelia shrugged and pulled her fine blond hair up. “We are on hiatus. I suppose he just wants to chat is all.”

Orlando laughed sardonically. “My Dearest Friend in the World, I think you are blinded by your naïveté. That young man who left that message has something heavy on his mind.”

“Oh?” Slightly amused but more exasperated, Angelia turned to him. “So what do you think he wants, O Dali Lando?”

“He wants to fuck you,” Orlando responded brusquely. “Duh, Angelia.”

“Gee, why not cloud the air with euphemisms?” Angelia cried, a bit hurt.

“Why should I? As your best friend, I am entitled to give you nothing but the honest truth.”

“Or honest bullshit. God, Orlando, he’s from bloody Kentucky. They quote the Holy Bible like they breathe over there. He wouldn’t dare ask me for gratuitous sex without putting a ring on my finger first.”

“Uh huh,” Orlando said doubtfully. “Right. And this chick that he cheated on for you—did they have sex? Or did it start with you?”

“I said we _nearly_ slept together, Orlando. We didn’t consummate the relationship in that way.”

Orlando’s brown-eyed gaze fell upon her again. Unreadable emotions lie in his eyes that troubled her greatly. “But that doesn’t mean that he never wanted to, Angelia. A man is a man, and they have needs.”

Angelia raised an eyebrow. “And you would know, wouldn’t you?” Angelia gulped down her own beer for a second. “You seem to have been a fixture around here instead of getting your own dates.”

Orlando sighed and bit off an oath. “Touché.”

“Damn right. Go find a girlfriend and leave me alone.”

Orlando placed a hand on her shoulder. “Annie, I’m supposed to protect you. Sorry, but I can’t leave you alone.”

Angelia nodded silently and watched as Jim Carrey urinated into a beer bottle not too much different than her own. If it had been any other time, she would have found this hilariously funny. But now…things were different. Things had been different for a long time, since she found her destiny…and fell in love with another woman’s man. She looked sidelong at Orlando, who, she found, was looking back at her. She looked away and back at the TV screen.

_I wish he could protect me,_  she mused.  _But he can’t. And that’s a bloody shame._

* * *

“Hana-sama, I can’t reach Haruka and Michiru and Hotaru. Angelia is not answering her phone.”

Jessica nodded as Minako, now thawed out, gave her a report on the whereabouts of the rest of the Sailor Senshi. As the leader of the Midnight Senshi, she had appointed herself the head of this impromptu gathering.

The basement of Cat Headquarters was a control room with a section for meetings such as this one. In a large capsule on the far side of the room lay Danie, unconscious and unnaturally rosy. Ami and Moira-Selene monitored the palpitations and beeps of the machines that were hooked up to the healing capsule. According to Ami and Moira-Selene, Danie’s aura was heightened to a dangerous level. Jessica had a feeling that the recent events had something to do with it, and Ami and Moira-Selene had postulated that as well. Now, Jessica mused as she scanned the Inner Sailor Senshi and the other Midnight Senshi sitting on the couches of Cat HQ, all they had to do was to wait, no matter how costly it would be.

And that was what they agreed upon. They would wait.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Four**

At Kaminari Academy the next day, Angelica Wolfe strolled into the building with her head held high and her astronomy homework completed.

“Isn’t it a wonderful morning?” Angelica asked, grinning widely.

Beside her, Angelique shook her head in exasperation. “Right. You would say it’s a wonderful day where there are thirty-mile-per-hour wind gusts outside. Not to mention we haven’t made much progress on our mission.”

Angelica shrugged. “I’m just trying to be optimistic.” Her grin grew dreamy. “And we get to see Orlando first thing on this fine morning.”

“We see him every day,” muttered Angelique. Angela remained silent.

“I know,” Angelica agreed. “Isn’t it wonderful?”

“Call it whatever you want, dear sister.”

Angelica rolled her eyes and threw her hair over her shoulder. “I don’t care what you say. I’m going ahead to class.”

With that, Angelica left Angelique and Angela on their own. Once Angelica was gone, Angelique turned to Angela worriedly. “You’ve been quiet,” Angelique noted. “I’m sure you’re disappointed with our progress.”

“I am more disappointed with Angelia,” Angela replied evenly. “I know she knows we’re here. Lina told me that she got the note.”

“Lina’s transferring into one of her English classes. Perhaps she can knock some sense into her during that time.”

Angela shook her head. “It’s not going to work.” The sisters paused in the doorway to watch Angelica as she held a conversation with some of the popular girls in the class. “We are going to have to accelerate things. There is no way that we can do what we were sent here to do at the rate we’re going now.”

“I second the motion,” Angelique said, nodding. “So what are we going to do?”

There was no time to discuss it further because the bell rang at that moment and Orlando came rushing in with the textbook and his lecture notes. Everyone settled into their seats. He greeted the class and asked everyone to pass in their homework. Angelica was extremely enthusiastic to do so and Orlando noticed.

“Miss Wolfe, you seem very happy to turn in your homework this morning,” Orlando commented.

Angelica grinned at him. “I am happy, Orlando. I am also very happy to be here right now.”

“Good. I’m glad you’re happy. Hopefully this will spread to your classmates because I now have to pass back the quizzes from yesterday morning.” Groans erupted from the class but Angelica still wore her dazzling smile. Orlando took some papers from the stack he entered the room with and began to pass them out. Angelica’s smile faded a notch. People around her chatted to their friends about their scores. Most of them were pretty good, but Angelica heard Shane swearing behind her. Good. Just what he deserves.

“Let’s go over some of the most frequently missed answers so we can clear up any confusion.” Orlando paused at the front of the room as the shuffling and lamenting stopped. “What is an equinox?”

Sae Sasaki, the brunette who had attempted to gain Orlando’s attention before Felice’s arrival on his first day, raised her hand.

“Okay, Miss Sae. Delight us with your intelligence.”

Sae would have started beaming if she hadn’t of had more self-control, but she kept the right balance of excitement and coolness in her voice. “An equinox occurs on the days of the year on which daytime and nighttime are equal.”

The wind picked up outside and Orlando frowned. “That’s good, Sae, but that’s not quite what I’m looking for.” Sae looked utterly shocked. “Anyone want to clarify?” He looked down to his left when the class offered no more volunteers. “Felice?”

Felice stopped writing in a spiral notebook and peered up at him. “Yes?”

“Give us your definition of an equinox, if you don’t mind.”

Felice did mind, which could be seen as she slapped her paper back onto the desk, but she read her answer aloud with stony efficiency. “An equinox is the time of year at which the Sun moves either north or south of the celestial equator. During the autumnal equinox in September, the Sun moves down the ecliptic from north to south of the celestial equator, and the opposite of this occurs during the vernal equinox in March when the Sun moves from south to north.”

Silence. Felice put her paper away.

“Thank you, Felice,” Orlando murmured, then addressing the class, he added, “That, my fine pupils, is the kind of answer that I want. Some of you gave me something similar to that, but others of you need more work.”

Felice went back to scribbling. Angelica gazed thoughtfully at her but put in a thought to talk to her later. She would have to tone it down a little. Something told Angelica to look behind her, and she did, just for a second.

Sae Sasaki was seething.

Angelica felt some strange vindictiveness well up in her. Girls like Sae would not be upstaged without a price.

This would be good.

* * *

Like she always did, Felice left the class after all of her classmates had exited. She didn’t really talk to any of them because they were not important. She had one thing to do here and one thing to do only. And that one thing was not to become the most popular girl at Kaminari Academy.

Unfortunately, she had pissed off the holder of that coveted title and her royal committee.

In true leader and mob fashion, Sae Sasaki and her uniform-wearing followers were waiting for Felice at her locker.

Felice rolled her eyes and pushed past them to get to her locker.

Sae pushed her back, and because she was expecting it she didn’t fall to the ground.

“Felice dear,” Sae began, “we have to have a little talk.”

Felice raised an eyebrow and didn’t speak. Meanwhile, Angelica, who had watched Sae and her friends approach her ally, observed with rapt interest.

“Aren’t you going to say something?” Sae demanded.

Felice opened her locker, which threw Sae off a couple of inches. “I prefer not.”

Sae slammed Felice’s locker in anger. Many people stopped to watch as if they were at Madison Square Garden. Angelica inhaled as Felice decided whether or not it would be a good idea to punch Sae’s lights out.

In this case, Felice opted not to. It would only make matters worse.

“You little bitch—”

Someone cleared his throat behind Sae and her mob. Felice stepped aside Sae to look her benefactor in the face.

“What’s going on here?” Felice’s “benefactor” inquired.

Sae jumped and whirled around. “Mr. Bloom!” she exclaimed. “I was just–”

Orlando shook his head, disgusted, and walked around Sae. He took Felice by the arm and led her away through the growing crowd of people as Sae called after him.

When they reached the lobby of the building, Felice shook her arm out of his grasp.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Felice snapped. “I could have taken care of that narrow-minded sycophant myself.”

Orlando inhaled. Women. “I was doing you a favor, Felice. I think—”

Felice held up her hands as if to shield herself from whatever he was going to say. “Oh no. I hardly care what you think, Orlando Bloom, because there’s no telling what kinds of stuff goes on in your head.”

Pause. Orlando paled. Felice blinked rapidly at her slip.

“But how–?” he choked out.

Felice straightened and backed away. “It hardly matters. Besides, anyone with eyes can see that you’ve been sleeping badly. I can imagine something is bothering you that you need to take care of.” She turned to leave. “Good day, Mr. Bloom.”

Felice stalked away and, much to Orlando’s surprise, out of the building. He watched her leave with a growing confusion…and the feeling that Felice was more than just a mere student.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Five**

_He didn’t know where he was this time. It was all white again, until the background exploded with color and sound. It was a field, filled with flowers and freshly cut grass. In the distance stood a tall building that looked like a palace. Laughter and birds chirping wafted on the breeze, along with the scent of jasmine and lavender. Thinking that perhaps he’d get information to help him, he walked toward the sound of the laughter._

_A girl with pink hair wearing a white dress ran up to him. She giggled, then ran circles around him. A small cat followed behind her. Frowning, he paused gingerly, since he was barefoot and confused. But the girl stopped and smiled up at him and he smiled back._

_“Are you lost?” asked the girl._

_“I think I might be,” he said with a nervous laugh. “It seems that I’m new to this place. Could you tell me where I am?”_

_“Oh! That’s easy. You’re in Crystal Tokyo. It’s the thirtieth century and today’s my birthday.” She held out a hand. “I’m Chibi-Usa!”_

_He shook her hand, finding that he wasn’t able to deny her charm. “Nice to meet you, Chibi-Usa. My name is—”_

_Chibi-Usa’s giggle cut him off. “I know who you are, silly! We all know who you are!” She tilted her head as he looked at her with a perplexed look. “But do you know who you are?”_

_He just looked at her thoughtfully without speaking. He didn’t know how to answer that. And just what was the correct response for such a question, especially from a charming little girl in a charming little dress?_

_A yell saved him from answering. “Chibi-Usa-chan!”_

_Chibi-Usa sobered. “I have to go.” She turned to run, then looked back at him. “Sayonara, Orlando-ojisama! Don’t forget to find out who you are!”_

_Orlando’s eyes widened. He watched as the pink-haired girl ran into the arms of a blonde wearing a tiara and a white dress similar to her daughter’s. Her warm blue eyes locked with his a moment, then the blaring of Sheryl Crow’s “A Change Would Do You Good” seemingly from the sky rendered the scene white._

When Orlando came awake, he wasn’t sweating this time, but he was just as confused.

 _A change (a change would do you) would do you good_  
A change would do you good  
I think a change (a change would do you) would do you good  
A change would do you good

_God’s little gift is on the rag—_

Orlando snapped off his alarm clock radio. It was a little after eight. Before he bolted out of bed to get ready for work, he realized that school was canceled for the day due to a holiday. He couldn’t remember what the holiday was, but he was thankful for it anyway.

The dream hadn’t been as disturbing as the one with the fire, but it was just as confusing. Perhaps it was a sign of the times…whatever times that would be. Perhaps it was the teaching gig. Perhaps that was making him crazy. Perhaps… Orlando sighed. Dammit, he should just forget it. Dreams were figments of people’s imaginations, and this was nothing. It didn’t deserve to be analyzed like it was important. Sure, dreams could be analyzed, but he wasn’t going to bother with it.

With that, he got out of bed and walked to the bathroom. He undressed, then turned the taps on.

After a few minutes of bliss with nothing but hot water and steam to occupy his mind, he stepped out of the shower. He grabbed a towel and dried off. He then turned to the mirror and wiped away the steam—

And then he yelped.

“What the—?!” Orlando jumped back when he saw a pair of brown eyes staring at him in the mirror that weren’t his. “I really need to see a professional about this…”

The sound of a woman’s voice added to his chagrin. “Well, I hate to disappoint you, but you’re only going to waste your money. The only person that can help you is you.”

Fed up, Orlando glared at the mirror. “At this point, I seriously doubt that. I’m having crazy dreams, and now I’m hearing voices. I’m a complete nutter!”

When Orlando looked in the mirror again, the face with the fiery brown eyes was gone. He sighed, and prayed for sanity, as he vowed to get the hell out of his apartment before he completely lost his mind.

* * *

“Minako-chan? Jenny-chan?”

Usagi’s voice broke Minako away from her milkshake. Jennifer looked up and frowned. Minako, Usagi, and Jennifer had decided to venture out to the Moon Spot to escape the heaviness of the control room at Cat HQ.

Danie’s condition had not worsened or improved. In the thirty-six plus hours that she had been incubated, nothing had happened. While some of the Senshi chose to stay nearby, the three of them had opted to get some fresh air. Not much conversation had ensued among the three, but Usagi wanted to break the silence. She was getting kind of antsy, to tell the truth. She hated the heavy quiet that had fallen.

“Do you think Danie-chan’s going to be alright?” Usagi asked.

Jennifer sighed. She hated to think that one of her beloved cousins was in such a condition, but it was how it was, and she couldn’t change it, not with all the sleep charms and insomnia spells in the world.

“I don’t know, Usagi-chan,” she replied. “I hope she does. I…” She sniffled. “I’d really like her to be at my wedding and all…” Minako patted her shoulder as she worked herself up to full steam. “It’s all so frustrating.”

“We understand,” Minako told her. “It’s all so stressful. So many things going wrong…”

Jennifer wiped at her eyes. “It’s not just Danie. It’s Trowa, too. He’s…” A ghost of a smile appeared on her face. “He’s been so sweet since he proposed but…” She shook her head. “I know that a part of him aches to share it with someone other than Heero, Duo, Quatre, and Wufei. His sister has disowned him for being in love with me, so it seems that he has no real family to speak of.” Jennifer picked up her napkin and crumbled it up in her hand. “He has no blood, you guys. His parents are dead. And… I already mentioned how Catherine feels about me.”

Usagi thumped the table with a determined fist and climbed to her feet. Minako and Jennifer could only look at her, awed, as she stood over them.

“No!” she declared. “We cannot give up. We will find Trowa’s relatives, and they will be at the wedding!”

“Usagi…” Jennifer began softly.

Minako shielded her face as others shifted to look at them. “Usagi-chan—quiet down! People are looking at us…”

“I don’t care! I will not have one of my friends unhappy on the best day of her life.” Usagi turned and climbed out of the booth. She drifted toward the bathrooms. “I, Usagi Tsukino, will complete this mission and—”

Usagi, triumphant in her promise and the feeling it gave her to help someone else, had not noticed a tall young man, who appeared quite distracted himself, with curling brown hair walking nearby with a tray. Usagi cried out and the two crashed into each other (not exactly in that order). Jennifer and Minako watched the scene with wide eyes. Jennifer covered her eyes and sighed.

Usagi turned and tried to apologize to the perplexed young man, in rapid Japanese no less, but she slipped on his drink and knocked him over. They fell on the tile in a pile of arms and legs.

Jennifer uncovered her eyes and gingerly walked toward bedlam.

“Usagi-chan…?” Jennifer began.

Meanwhile, Usagi was trying to disentangle herself from the guy and was finding it difficult. She didn’t know that she and the guy were attached; one of the stray threads in the guy’s shirt had gotten caught in the zipper of Usagi’s jacket. With her eyebrows knitted together in concentration, she leapt to her feet proudly when—

_Rrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiippp!_

Jennifer’s cornflower blue eyes widened.

Minako appeared at that moment to look. Her eyes bugged out when she saw fully-formed male pectorals exposed.

“Um, I think that was his shirt, Usagi-chan,” Jennifer remarked.

Usagi turned to peer at the guy, who was red with embarrassment. Jennifer offered a hand to help the guy up. Minako discarded her jacket to cover his exposed skin (even though it was apparent that she—and many of the other women surrounding—was quite enamored with the sight of his body, which should have been of no surprise given that he was extremely toned).

“Oh my, are you okay?” Jennifer asked him.

Minako gazed at his ass. The guy jumped when she pulled off some of the hamburger bun had gotten branded on his backside when he and Usagi fell to the floor.

“Um, thanks,” he said, still appearing quite shocked. “I’m alright. Just a bit…” He turned to look at Usagi, who was picking food bits from her blond hair, and his expression changed. “Flummoxed.”

“Flummoxed?” Jennifer frowned.

Usagi felt his eyes on her. She looked up at him, and for a moment, nothing happened. The look in the guy’s eyes could not be read. Jennifer had the slightest feeling that something odd was going on…

In the next instant, the guy hastily gave Minako back her jacket. “I think I should go,” he murmured.

Jennifer and Minako watched him walk past with bemusement. Usagi rushed after him as one of the employees came out to clean up the mess. Wanting to make sure Usagi didn’t make a fool out of herself, Minako and Jennifer rushed after her.

Outside, the guy was at his car and preparing to put on another shirt. Usagi was running for the car and yelling.

“Gomen nasai,” she began. “I didn’t mean to trip you. I hope you’re not hurt. Are you really okay?”

Jennifer and Minako watched as the guy pulled the shirt over his head and got into the car. Before he had pulled the shirt over his head, Minako noticed a strange mark on the guy’s shoulder. He reassured Usagi that he was okay, then got into his car and sped off. Usagi frowned, sensing that something was wrong with him. Jennifer noticed this and patted her shoulder. They didn’t speak. The trio returned inside and paid for their food before leaving the Moon Spot.

* * *

When Minako, Jennifer, and Usagi returned to Cat HQ later, the news was that Danie was slightly better. It appeared that all the Senshi had spent some time away from the control room and were decidedly less tense. But there was still worry upon Jessica’s face when she gazed upon her prone sister.

“She’ll be alright,” Ami assured Jessica.

Jessica nodded. “I know. I just wish I knew what was wrong…”

Moira-Selene, who was looking in one of the books of the Mayonaka Volumes, sighed and shook her head. “This book is explanatory on everything else, but when it comes to one of your own turning on you, it’s not something you’re prepared for.”

Makoto agreed. “It’s quite a blow when that happens.”

Rei stood and walked to her fellow Fire Child. “What if we don’t find a solution?”

“I don’t know. Danie can’t stay in here forever.” Moira-Selene flipped a page and sighed. “People are starting to ask questions…”

“Let them ask what they want,” Jessica snapped. “What we do is our business.”

Wanting to change the subject, Makoto turned to Minako. “So what happened at the Moon Spot?”

Jennifer, Minako, and Usagi sweatdropped simultaneously.

“Well…” Jennifer began.

“It was sort of an accident…” Minako added.

Rei looked to Usagi. “Usagi-chan, did you knock the restaurant down or something?”

Indignant, Usagi glared at Rei. “I wouldn’t do such a thing! You’re mean, Rei-chan!”

“You should be used to it by now.”

“It was nothing like that,” Jennifer broke in. At the strange sound Minako made, she amended the statement. “Okay, it wasn’t that bad. Usagi just bumped into some random guy and ripped his shirt off.”

Silence.

“What?!” Jessica, Rei, Makoto, Moira-Selene, Samantha, Evie, and Ami cried in unison.

“Okay. Maybe I worded that wrong,” Jennifer told them sheepishly.

The other Senshi just stared at her, goggle-eyed.

“The guy was kawaii!” added Minako. “He had this curling brown hair that you just wanted to touch and these gorgeous brown eyes and pecs to die for—”

“Hai, so what happened?” Makoto asked. “Get to the part where his shirt gets ripped off!”

Sighing, Usagi said, “It was an accident. We just got stuck together by one of the threads in his shirt.”

“And how the hell did that happen?” Jessica demanded.

The trio sweatdropped again.

“Um, maybe we shouldn’t have said anything,” Jennifer muttered under her breath.

Looking wistful, Rei rose from her seat and wandered to the capsule where Danie was sleeping. “Danie-chan would love to hear a story like this.”

The girls all nodded, too, feeling a little less buoyant. Sensing Rei’s despondency, Usagi walked up to the capsule and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. Then Minako, Ami, and Makoto followed, giving their support to their friend.

“She will wake up,” Makoto said firmly. Rei nodded, willing it to be so.

Minako’s eyes drifted down to Danie’s prone body. When she had been brought there, she’d been wearing jeans and a tank top, and in the capsule, she wore nothing but her strapless bikini top and its matching bottom. As her eyes trailed Danie’s svelte body, she noticed something familiar on Danie’s shoulder, like a birthmark she hadn’t taken notice of before.

It was a circle with two intersecting lines in the middle of it.

And it was the same symbol that had been on the mysterious guy’s shoulder.

* **“A Change Would Do You Good”** written by Brian MacLeod, Jeff Trott, and Sheryl Crow.


	7. Chapter 7

**Part Two  
Birth**

**Chapter Six**

“Minako-chan?” Moira-Selene noticed her expression first. “Something’s wrong, isn’t there?”

 _“Nani?! D-d-demo…?”_  Minako said to herself.  _“Masako…!”_

“You might want to explain that, Minako-chan.” That had come from Jessica, who was slowly rising and coming closer.

Minako stared at Danie’s shoulder, then up to Jessica’s anxious face. “That guy…the one Usagi ran into…” She looked down and pointed at Danie’s shoulder. “…Had that same exact birthmark on him.”

The room went silent. Ami jumped up and went to Moira-Selene, who was flipping frantically through the thick book. Samantha declared that she knew someone at the Moon Spot and figured she could find out who the guy was by asking someone. After Samantha had bolted, Evie picked up another Volume. The remaining Senshi waited in silence as the sounds of beeping and turning pages filled the silence.

“What if…what is this means nothing?” Minako asked. “I could have been seeing things.”

Moira-Selene looked up for a moment to reassure her. “Minako-chan, if it wasn’t important, you wouldn’t have remembered! Trust me, you took notice for a reason, I’m sure.” She returned to the book.

“What exactly are you looking for?” asked Rei.

“Information on the Royal Family of Nova in the first or second century,” Moira-Selene replied. “Any of Queen Aidanne’s immediate ancestors and/or predecessors should be in here. And if there’s anything about that mark…”

“We’ll find it,” Ami finished. “There has to be something. These volumes have proved to be helpful thus far…”

Rei bit her lip. A moment later, Moira-Selene cried out in triumph. Usagi and Makoto came closer. The cats, having been napping in another room, came drifting into the room.

“What’s going on?” asked Artemis, jumping onto the arm of Jessica’s chair.

“We’re on to something,” Jessica answered.

Everyone went silent when Moira-Selene started to read from the yellowed volume.

“According to the book, there were two brothers—Queen Aidanne’s great-grandfather and great-uncle—in the Nova Royal Family at one time,” Moira-Selene explained. “The older brother was named Aidan, the younger…” At that, Moira-Selene paused. At Jessica’s prodding, she continued. “The younger was named Fiore.” Jessica and Evie both winced. The Inner Sailor Senshi appeared troubled. “Aidan was the rightful heir to the throne. Just as he was destined, he took the throne as King, married, and had a child—female, if I’m not mistaken. One day…one day, Aidan, who had chosen to fight heroically in battle alongside his soldiers, was killed mysteriously and Fiore took his place.” Moira-Selene looked up at Minako. “First-born crown princesses and princes on the Sun are born with the Mark of Nova on them.” In a quieter voice, she said, “And it never goes away.”

The silence came again. With their minds reeling, the Senshi processed the information in their minds.

“So,” Makoto postulated, “you’re saying…that this mysterious guy that Usagi-chan bumped into could be a descendant to this King Aidan?”

Moira-Selene nodded. “It adds up.”

“She’s right,” Ami agreed. “It does seem too orderly not to be.”

“So what do we do?” Luna asked.

Suddenly, Samantha rushed back in, panting for breath. She inhaled and exhaled heavily as Minako and Rei led her to a nearby chair. After she had caught her breath, she spoke.

“Okay,” she started. “My friend Rosa down there said that she saw a guy that fit that description down there a lot. Most of the time, he wasn’t alone.” Samantha, not quite having a hold on her breathing, sighed expansively. “This is the part that’s exasperating.”

“Well…?” Jessica said impatiently.

“She said he was mostly with a girl, blond, blue eyes, the whole bit. Then she said…then she said she was very cultured and spoke lots of big words with a British accent.”

The Senshi all figured it out in the same instant:  _Angelia!_

“Then that means—” Moira-Selene guessed.

Usagi ran as fast as she could before Moira-Selene could even finish her sentence. As the other Sailor Senshi watched in shock, exasperation, and awe, Usagi had already made it down the street. Luna, fearing for her safety as she always did, went rushing after her, following her blond hair down Gracia Row. In their wake, Jessica left Moira-Selene to watch Danie, ordered the remaining Inner Sailor Senshi to find Alex and Amanda, and told Samantha and Evie that she would accompany them to follow Luna and Usagi.

Meanwhile, Usagi burst into Angelia’s apartment building a few blocks away from Cat Headquarters with her lungs screaming in pain. She hadn’t run like that since high school but that was the least of her concern now. Forgetting the elevator, she ventured up the steps, never faltering or stumbling once. Luna was galloping madly behind her, silently admiring her bravery and cursing her foolhardiness for taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Usagi flung open the door to the hallway and rushed through, and Luna managed to barely save her tail before the door slammed shut.

At the door of Apartment 410, Usagi panted and pounded her fists on the wood. The door was opened by a wide-eyed Angelia.

“Annie-chan!” she panted. “Annie-chan…you have to listen to me…  _Onegai_ …”

Scared at the tone in Usagi’s voice, Angelia cried, “Usagi-chan! What’s going on?”

As Angelia led Usagi in, Luna followed in behind them, virtually unnoticed. In the living room, Orlando sat on the couch in the middle of grading astronomy papers. He looked up at them, then his eyes lit up in comprehension as they fell on Usagi. Of course, her grim expression made him frown and he searched her face for clues.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Angelia responded. She turned to Usagi. “Usagi-chan, _daijoubu ka?”_

Usagi stared at her earnestly. “I came to save you, Annie-chan.” Her voice was soft.

Angelia’s eyebrows furrowed and her eyes widened. “Save me from what?”

The answer was an explosion from the door, splintering wood and the force of it sending Angelia, Orlando, Usagi, and Luna to the floor. As the smoke cleared, the three humans and Luna looked up with their gritty eyes and saw a man and a woman standing over them.

“I see you got here before us,” Amanda said to Usagi. Then she chuckled. “Just barely. But it’s not going to help.”

Usagi glared at her. “You leave Annie-chan alone. You’re never going to get what you want.”

“Like hell I won’t,” Amanda snapped. She turned to her companion. “Alex, get rid of this nuisance, would you please?”

The man with the short dark hair (obviously he had changed it back to his original color) opened his palm where a sunburst was forming.

Within a flash, Alex was on the floor, and Orlando had tackled him.

Angelia gasped and climbed to her feet despite Usagi’s protests. Amanda grabbed Angelia by the hair as Orlando struggled with Alex. Usagi’s eyes raced back and forth between the spectacle of Orlando fighting with Alex and Angelia writhing with pain and anguish. Orlando growled as Alex punched him in the stomach and something in his eyes glowed, making them seem almost golden, when Orlando retaliated with a punch of his own. Witnessing this, Usagi and Luna shared a look, then jumped into the fray.

Alex threw Orlando off of him and he flew into the wall then slid onto the floor, unconscious. Usagi went after Alex as he was about to attack Orlando. Seeing the light in his hand, Usagi shielded Orlando without thinking about herself or about transforming into Eternal Sailor Moon. Luna, claws extended, flew at the woman’s face and held, clinging for dear Angelia’s life. Amanda swore and tried to tear the cat away but Angelia kicked her in the stomach and turned to see Usagi’s back in flames.

“Usagi-chan!” she cried. She ran to help her, but Amanda grabbed her by the hair again and pulled her back. A blow to her head rendered Angelia unconscious. Amanda and Alex, having done what they had intended, set fire to Angelia’s apartment and left Usagi, Luna, and Orlando for dead.

A minute later, Usagi shifted, coughing over the acrid smoke. Her back was stinging and her clothes and hair were singed. She noticed Orlando under her and felt an overwhelming sense of purpose. Spying her cat, she crawled over to Luna as the cat revived herself.

“Usagi-chan!” she yelled. “Save him.” She struggled to her feet. “I’ll be okay. I can—”

At that moment, one of the ceiling beams cracked loudly. Usagi gasped and dived for Orlando’s prone body. Usagi rescued Orlando from the beam and fought to funnel energy in getting them out of there. The fire was too powerful for her. Drained of her energy, Usagi fell unconscious on top of Orlando, shielding him.

The window shattered and, with a burst of wind, Sailor Rose entered the inferno. The sound of sirens coming closer assaulted the roaring fire. After her came Sailor Mercury, and Rose called out to her to smother the fire. Using an Aqua Illusion, Mercury doused the fire enough for Rose to reach Usagi and Orlando. Mercury picked Luna up and was relieved to find that she was alright.

“Are they okay?” Mercury inquired.

Rose frowned, checking breathing and pulses. “They’re okay. They’re both burned, but they’ll be alright.”

The near-deafening sirens indicated that the firefighters and the ambulance had arrived so Rose and Mercury de-transformed. When the firefighters entered the apartment, they saw medical student Ami Mizuno and ex-renowned doctor Jessica Thomas standing over a small blonde and a soot-faced young man. She called out to them and explained how they came and put the fire out. Quickly, EMTs rushed Usagi and Orlando out on stretchers. Ami and Jessica ventured down to the street and consoled the other Senshi. They rushed off to the hospital not long after.

* * *

_“This is it,” said Neo-Queen Serenity with Chibi-Usa in her lap. “It’s time.”_

_Orlando frowned. He was back in the flowery field, which was, if his memory served correctly, in Crystal Tokyo. He had been sitting on the ground talking with Serenity—but he couldn’t recall what they had been talking about. How had they come to this? And when? What had started the conversation?_

_“Time for what?” Orlando asked. “Are my questions going to be answered?”_

_Serenity turned as a petite woman appeared nearby and was walking toward them. She had long brown hair and deep brown eyes. She wore an orange-red robe over an orange dress that sparkled in the sunlight. She held nothing. When she paused a few feet in front of him, he could sense that there was something about her. He felt close to her, like she was kin. He sensed many other things about her that weren’t as tangible or easily named._

_She held out a hand to him. “You shouldn’t be afraid of me. You have seen me before.”_

_You have seen me before. Right… Then in a flash: the mirror! But how could he have seen her in his mirror after taking a shower at his apartment in the twenty-first century, and then be here ten centuries later to see her—_

_“That’s why it’s called a dream, my child,” the woman said with a bit of laughter in her voice. “I can see that you’re confused already and I haven’t even begun speaking.” Something told him to take her hand and he did. Some of his anguish ebbed away._

_“Can you answer my questions?” Orlando wanted to know. “I think I have a lot of them.”_

_The woman’s eyes twinkled. “I can answer some of them. The rest, time will answer.” She took her hand back. “It’s time for you to go. But we will meet again.”_

_This time, he expected the whiteness and was not at all perplexed by it. Perhaps more exasperated than ever._


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Seven**

Whiteness. The first thing that Orlando sensed when he woke up was the sterility of a hospital room. Within seconds, he could feel the burn on his arm, the throbbing of his head, and the rawness of his throat.

A gasp sounded from beside the bed. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the stark lighting in his room. When he opened his eyes, he saw Sae Sasaki standing beside his bed along with two of her overly simpering friends. His head throbbed with more pain as the room seemed to close in on him. And he had the immense bad luck of having Sae and her followers as his first sight upon awakening. Could it get any worse?

“Ohmigosh—are you okay, Mr. Bloom?” asked Sae. “We came as soon as we heard about Miss Buchannan’s apartment!”

Miss Buchannan? Angelia, he realized. Some of the images of light came flooding back. He winced as he remembered Angelia struggling—and the small blonde leaning over him like a guardian angel, backlit by fire—

“Is there anything we can get you?” Sae’s voice viciously slashed through his musings.

“Yeah,” chimed in one of the others.

“If you need a cup of water, let us know,” chirped another.

“Or a massage,” said the last with a strangely mischievous look, given the circumstances.

“Oh Kiki-chan!” exclaimed Sae with a giggle.

The girl named Kiki grinned and giggled. “You were thinking it. I just said it—”

“Alright,” boomed an authoritative voice from the doorway, “you senior teenyboppers have bothered this young man long enough. Now get to steppin’!”

Sae and her gang turned as a petite young black woman wearing a white lab coat came in and ushered them out, and not too nicely either.

“Now shoo. Don’t let the doorknob hit ya on the way out!” the woman exclaimed in their wake. She shook her head and made sure that they left. After they were out of earshot, she turned to Orlando. She checked his vitals and then produced a cup of water to saturate his dry throat.

She held up a hand before he could speak. “Don’t try to talk. You inhaled a lot of smoke last night. Just listen.” She glanced over her shoulder to make sure any stray ears wouldn’t catch what she was about to say. “Apparently, something strange is going on. How much do you know about Angelia Buchannan?”

“I know a lot about her,” Orlando responded, his voice still on the raw side. “She’s my best friend.”

“Hm.” The woman paused thoughtfully. “Anything odd?”

 _Anything odd?_  The question caught him off guard. Yes, there seemed to be things that he didn’t know about Angelia now, given the fact that the mysterious, clumsy blonde from the day before had known her somehow. Angelia had never introduced them, or given any explanation as to what her intentions were before that malicious man and woman showed up.

Orlando didn’t get to answer her because someone cleared her throat from the door.

The woman turned away from Orlando. He could see a tall woman with curly auburn hair pushing a wheelchair. And in the wheelchair—

“Usagi-chan!” exclaimed the woman. “You look better this morning. I hope you’re feeling better than you were last night.”

“Arigatou, Nikka-chan,” Usagi said to the woman before squeezing her hand. Her long blond hair flowed down her shoulders, any singed ends having been cut from her gleaming mane. Her blue eyes were serious. Her hands were folded in her lap, and Orlando could see that the left one was bandaged.

A tense moment passed. The auburn haired woman let go of the wheelchair and turned to the black woman. “Nicole, Usagi-chan needs a moment alone with…”

“Oh. Well.” Nicole gently pushed Usagi beside Orlando’s bed. “Y’all two have fun, ya hear? We’ll be back in a minute.”

Nicole and the auburn-haired woman left, leaving Usagi alone with Orlando. For some minutes, they didn’t speak. Orlando took her in, finding that she bore no resemblance to Angelia except for the eyes. She had an aura around her, and it made him feel safe and warm. Then he remembered that he’d seen those eyes before…

“You don’t know, do you?”

Usagi was the one to speak first. The sound of her voice, in a low tone, startled him.

“What don’t I know?” Orlando wanted to know.

Usagi appeared troubled. “Annie-chan…”

“How do you know Angelia?” Orlando couldn’t stop the question from bursting forth; the words had been burning his tongue in a way. He felt he had to know.

Usagi hesitated for a moment, trying to find an answer. Then she said quietly, “Annie-chan is my friend, my ally. We’re on the same team…”

Something told Orlando that this was bigger than sports. “I want to know what’s going on. Something is happening without my knowledge and I want to know more.”

Usagi looked at him with her mile-wide blue eyes. “I think you do know what’s going on… You just…don’t want to admit it…”

Shocked, Orlando held her gaze even as a tall man with dark hair and a woman with short hair strode into the room flanked by a nurse.

“Mr. Bloom?” the man spoke first.

Usagi averted her gaze and looked down. The nurse wheeled her away from the bed as the man and the woman came closer. The man introduced himself as Detective Oliver Cameron, and his partner Dawn Richardson-Cain. Orlando’s attention, however, was on Usagi, who was being pushed away in her wheelchair. Her last words rendered him speechless and thoughtful.

_You just…don’t want to admit it…_

“Mr. Bloom, do you have any information about Miss Buchannan’s disappearance?” Det. Cameron asked, breaking through his thoughts.

Cameron’s sentence broke through his brain. His brown eyes, sharp and steely, regarded Cameron with a slight glare before answering.

“Detective Cameron, if I knew anything about Angelia’s disappearance, then I would go and find her myself,” Orlando responded in an even tone.

Cameron glowered and prepared to say something distasteful, but Dawn stopped him.

“Cameron,” she began sternly. “Lay off would you?” She turned to Orlando with calm, sympathetic eyes. “We’ve already talked with Angelia’s neighbors. They told us that the two of you were very good friends.” At this Orlando looked down. “Do you remember how it happened?”

Dawn’s soft tone had a balming effect on him. Her voice reminded him of someone else he’d known…or seen in a dream…

“We…we got together to grade papers,” Orlando said in a soft voice, remembering the soft and comforting regularity of the ritual. “It was one of our rituals. She’d promised to make pasta for me, since she knew it was my favorite.” Dawn nodded and took that down on her notepad. “Then there was a knock on the door. The…the blonde, the little one, came in. She was anxious—panting like she had ran all the way there. Angelia asked what the matter was, then the door exploded.”

“The door exploded?” Cameron asked incredulously. “You have got to be—”

“Shut up, Cameron, before I pull your tongue out.” Dawn turned to Orlando. “And what happened after that?”

“A man and woman came in. They seemed to know the girl and Angelia. The man was going to attack us and…” Orlando recalled the flash of protectiveness that led him to tackle someone with supernatural powers. Not that he was going to tell them that. Something told him he’d best keep that part to himself. “I tackled the man. We…grappled, then…I don’t remember much after that.”

Dawn asked for descriptions. As she was taking them down, Cameron looked at Orlando curiously as he raised his eyes.

“You know,” Cameron began, “it’s quite puzzling to learn that a strapping young man such as yourself was bested by another.”

Orlando was infuriated by the insinuation. “Well, he had the advantage of knowing what the hell he was doing! How could I compete with that?”

“Perhaps as a man, I think.”

At that moment, Orlando seemed to snap. The circumstances suddenly became too much for him. Angelia, his best friend, was gone and there was no telling where she was or if she was still alive. Strange things were happening to him and he had no answers to combat the questions running rampant in his head. And now this jerk of a detective was questioning his manhood. When his eyes met Cameron’s, they had a golden sheen to them. Something was brewing in him, and he could not control it or understand it.

And at the door, Angelica Wolfe’s eyes widened. Her sisters looked on as Cameron stepped back half a foot.

“M-mister Bloom?” Dawn inquired in a small voice.

Cameron, inexplicably, started to grow warmer…

 _“Matte!”_  yelled the youngest Wolfe sister. _“Chotto matte! Onegai!”_

_Onegai…_

The word stopped the boiling inside of him.

Dawn and Cameron turned. They saw a set of triplets and a small girl with strawberry-blond hair wearing silver, purple, and black Kaminari Academy uniforms. Orlando remembered the strawberry-blonde streak from the other day and frowned at her.

“Perhaps we should go,” Dawn suggested. “I think we’ve gotten all we needed to get from Mr. Bloom.”

Wiping sweat from his brow, Cameron simply nodded and followed his partner. He didn’t feel like getting hurt—or burned for that matter—today.

The triplets and their little sister moved aside to let the duo out. Orlando stared at them.

“I hope you’re not here to bother me,” he said tightly. “I’m not in good humor today.”

Angelica walked forward. “Mr. Bloom—Orlando—I believe it would behoove you to listen to us.”

He looked away. “I’m done with listening today. Please leave me alone.”

Angelica’s eyes darkened. “Fine, you baka. Suit yourself.” With that, she turned on her heel and strode out. Her sisters, surprised that she didn’t press him further, followed her out.

“Gel!” exclaimed Angela. “We came to talk to him. Why are we leaving?”

Angelique crossed her arms. “I’m going back.”

 _“Minna…”_  began Lina. The three teens looked to their little sister. “We should leave him alone for a moment to understand what’s happening to him. He’s…he wasn’t ever warned of this coming. It wasn’t like he was born with it like we were.”

Angelique paused. “Lina-chan has a point. He’s thought he was normal for all his life, now this. Not to mention that he thought Angelia had told him everything about herself.”

Angela winced. “That, I think, is going to be the hardest part of this all, when it’s over…”

The girls nodded silently. Then Angelica, expression fierce, balled up a fist.

“Girls? I think it’s about time we mobilized the other Senshi.”

* * *

At Cat HQ, Moira-Selene called out to Ami. “Ami-chan!”

Ami, who had been taking a short break, dropped her sandwich when Moira-Selene called. The others had gone back to their regular routines after the fire, trying to dispel whispers that they were acting stranger than usual, so now it was just Moira-Selene and Ami. Duo Maxwell, a friend to the groom-to-be, stood in the doorway, his indigo eyes on the form in the healing capsule, which was now twitching…

“So that’s what happened to Danie!” Duo exclaimed, warranting a shocked look from Moira-Selene.

“Duo! Honestly!” she chided as Ami reached her side. Duo came over also, transfixed by the spectacle.

Three sets of anxious eyes watched as Daniella Thomas opened her eyes. She took in her surroundings for a few moments before pressing on the glass walls to get out.

Moira-Selene rushed to the console controlling the capsule and pushed a button. The glass slid down from the middle, exposing Danie to air. She sat up sharply. It took her a while to remember the circumstances that landed her inside the capsule and she sighed. Ami helped her down, as her legs were weak from days of no use, and handed her a blanket to cover herself with.

 _“Hermanita…?”_ Moira-Selene began.

“If you’re about to ask how I am, then I’m better,” she responded, voice scratchy. “I…I don’t feel as hot as I had been a few nights ago.”

“Then that’s a good sign, right?” Ami guessed.

Then an unexpected voice came: “As long as you find him in time.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Eight**

Ami, Moira-Selene, and Duo turned. Danie just raised her head.

She was dressed in a pale blue robe over a white dress. Her long blond hair fell gracefully in gentle curls past her shoulders and her blue eyes were grave. Moira-Selene and Ami were so shell-shocked that they had to sit down. Duo leaned on the arm of the nearest couch.

A visit from the White Star Prophet was something to be awed about. She only appeared in the past when there was catastrophe on Fate’s mind, and it appeared that whatever was brewing was just getting started.

“Senshi,” Ingrid began. “There are things you must know.”

“This is about why I suddenly got sick,” Danie said.

“It is more than that, Daniella. This goes back for centuries, therefore, it has been destined for that long.” She sat down in a chair, which was odd, because the quartet had never seen her do such a thing. “This is quite a long story so I must sit.”

“Perhaps we should call the others, Ingrid,” Moira-Selene suggested.

“No, Moira-Selene. I trust you four to relay this story to the others without fault. They have things to do and this cannot wait until you all are assembled.” Moira-Selene nodded. “Close your eyes.”

They did so, and the journey began…

* * *

**103 B.C.E., The Kingdom of Nova**

_King Orion the Second was on his deathbed. The King had ruled over Nova for thousands of years, and now, sickness had taken him over. His three children, eldest child Aidan, younger son Fiore, and only daughter Tonari, watched as physicians came in and out of the King’s chamber, trying desperately to save him from the illness that had attacked the virile king without warning. During their vigil outside the chamber, Aidan, at one point, sighed and sat down with his head in hands. Tonari, sensing her big brother’s discontent, went over to him and took his hand._

_“Aidan… Talk to me,” Tonari pleaded gently, which was not her nature with anyone but her brother. “You’ve been quiet—too quiet.”_

_Fiore, who was less emotional about the situation, crossed his arms and turned away. “He’s afraid that Father will die.”_

_Aidan looked up at his brother with indignant brown eyes. “And you’re not?”_

_Fiore didn’t answer. Tonari turned to look at her older brother’s back for a moment. It was true that Fiore harbored some resentment for being the middle child. But then again, he lacked the startling presence of his older brother. Aidan was not only diplomatic, charming, and sensitive, but he could fight with the best of them. Tonari had the infinite good luck of being trained by him, and she was thankful for the skill he passed down to her. It had been used in deterring Fiore from sparring with her and thinking that he would win many times._

_“I believe it would be best if you kept quiet right now,” Tonari warned her older brother._

_Fiore whirled on her, eyes blazing. “Dammit, don’t tell me what to do!” He raked a hand through his dark hair. “I am so goddamn sick of being told what to do all the time, and now you, you silly little woman—”_

_“Fiore,” Aidan interrupted sternly. “Please. Do not start your histrionics right now. Our father lies in there dying, and all you care about is your ego.”_

_Fiore came closer as if he wanted to strike Aidan for being frank with him. Tonari rose, and nearly towered over him. She glared at him, silently warning him that if he came closer, she would be forced to defend her big brother._

_The sounds of the chamber door opening caught their attention. Cannes, the family doctor, came out with his hands at his sides and his dark eyes grim. Tonari, refusing to believe the truth, rushed to him and grabbed his arms. When Cannes said nothing, just shook his head, Tonari nearly collapsed from her grief. Aidan rose to his feet and embraced his little sister. Fiore stood apart, seeing the reflection of his siblings comforting each other in the glossy marble. Revulsion rose in his throat and threatened to sear his vocal cords._

_It intensified when Cannes said, “Prince Aidan, the Royal Council will like to talk to you as soon as possible. Whenever you…feel is best to proceed.”_

_The three of them knew the significance of Cannes’s statement to Aidan; it meant that as soon as he allowed, he would follow in his father’s footsteps as King of Nova. Aidan nodded and led his sister away, intending to put her to sleep for the night. But once he had settled her into bed, he found that just her sleeping presence seemed better than his own empty bedroom._

_He sat in the overly cool room and mused. Tonari seemed the most hot-blooded of the three, so her room was unnaturally cool, even for a room on the Sun. A couple of hours passed. Aidan figured it was time for him to retire when Tonari awoke and grabbed his wrist._

_He looked down at her, startled. “Tonari. I thought you were sleeping!”_

_The raven-haired young woman sat up, slightly rumpled. “I was,” she admitted. “But I’m awake now.” She patted her bed. “Sit down. Something is bothering you.”_

_Aidan chuckled a little. He should have known that his little sister would be so sharp. “I can’t keep anything from you, can I?”_

_“Of course not! I know you very well, Aidan. You should know that already.” She patted his hand. “You mind telling me what’s got you so anxious?”_

_A quiet moment passed. The whirring of the air conditioner filled the silence before Aidan spoke._

_“I’ve heard a rumor,” Aidan told her. “And this doesn’t go past this room, understand?” Tonari consented. His voice dropped several decibels. “I was having a meeting with the council of the eastern lands when I overheard a couple of the members talking about…our mother.”_

_Tonari blinked. Their mother, who had passed on when Tonari was a little girl, was a sore subject for her. “What did they say?”_

_Sensing her growing unease, Aidan asked, “Are you sure you want to hear this?”_

_“Aidan…” Tonari was exasperated. “I’m old enough to take whatever you want to say. I’m sure it was hard for you, too.”_

_Aidan nodded, as she was correct, as usual. “Well, I suppose it’s not easy to hear that your mother bore an illegitimate child from a couple of gossips…”_

_Tonari went pale, understanding his meaning—or believing that she had. A feeling of despondency washed over her. To find out, suddenly, amid her father dying, that she and Aidan, her glorious brother, were not blood-related at all rendered her speechless. She searched his face, his eyes, trying to find out if he was lying. He wasn’t. It would be unlike him to lie._

_He then saw her tears and in a flash and realized what she was assuming. “Oh Tonari!” He wiped her tears away. “Dear sister, it’s not you…if that’s what you’re thinking…”_

_Relief washed over her. Then… “Oh no…” she whispered. “Aidan. Does he know?”_

_Aidan shook his head. “From what I heard, only Father and Mother knew.”_

_Tonari closed her eyes. “If he ever finds out… Aidan…he might try to hurt you! You know how he feels about you.”_

_Aidan shook off the possibility of being killed by his own brother. “Nonsense. We will deal with it when it’s time.”_

_Tonari nodded, believing in her big brother. He was strong, noble, and true. She would always believe in what he told her, even if it meant the death of her._

_* * *_

_A few days later, Crown Prince Aidan became King Aidan. His sister clapped wildly as he was crowned. Fiore just looked on with a neutral expression._

_The first several years of Aidan’s reign were peaceful. He had gotten married to a noblewoman named Cara, and she was pregnant with their first child. Tonari was the first to congratulate him with little Zoë was born. Fiore, of course, had been partying all the while and arrived drunk to congratulate his brother. Aside from that, there had been no significant altercations between the two._

_But Peace gave away to discontent. A rebel group in the western lands was preparing to revolt. Apparently, not everyone liked the change in administration._

_Aidan, feeling like the kingdom was his responsibility, donned his armor even though his wife and his little sister pleaded with him not to._

_“It’s my battle to fight,” Aidan insisted. “I am not some figurehead king. I will amend this as a warrior of the Kingdom of Nova.”_

_Cara, holding little Zoë, grabbed her husband’s arm. “But Aidan—you could get killed!”_

_Aidan gazed at her with intense brown eyes. “Then so be it.” He leaned down and kissed her trembling lips. “I love you. Take care of our child if something happens.”_

_The two lovers were locked in a gaze until Tonari rushed into the room. She looked restless. Aidan peered at her flushed face and tried to discern her problem. He strode to her, in full armor, and asked, “Tonari, what is the matter?”_

_Tonari’s lips pursed together and her eyes watered. “It seems that the rumor has spread, dear brother,” she responded. Aidan’s eyes widened when he understood her meaning. “The kingdom is in an uproar. They think that you are the illegitimate child instead of Fiore and are ready to overthrow you.”_

_The sound of a glass shattering in the doorway caught their attention. The worse had happened. Tonari turned to find Fiore staring at them with shocked eyes from the doorway. His shocked eyes became piercing with anger. Fiore walked away without a word. Tonari started to go after him, but Aidan stopped her and went instead. By that time, Fiore was out of sight, and the time to march had descended upon them. Cara, wracked with worry, decided to pray to the gods for Aidan’s safety so Tonari took little Zoë to her room to care for her._

_On the battle field, Aidan and his fellow warriors were successful in suppressing the revolt. While Aidan was checking the houses for survivors, he came across his own brother in an abandoned shack. When Fiore lunged at him with his sword, Aidan stepped back, astonished._

_“Fiore!” he exclaimed. “Don’t let your anger consume you like this.”_

_Fiore was not listening. His rage had consumed him, and there was nothing he could do about it. He pointed his sword menacingly at him. “I am going to kill you!”_

_The two brothers sparred. It is not surprising, given the present events, that Fiore’s anger allowed him to best his stronger older brother. Stabbed in the heart, Aidan was only allowed to say one thing before he joined his parents in the Great Beyond._

_“You will pay for this,” Aidan vowed. Those were his last words._

_Fiore cleaned his sword and claimed that he had found his brother dead when the others came looking for Aidan. Fiore returned with the army and Aidan’s dead body. When Cara was told of the news, she cried—and accused Fiore of killing his brother. With the same sword with which he killed his brother, he struck her down in cold blood, and the Castle of Nova assumed that the same person that murdered Aidan had done it. Fiore did not try to clear up the misunderstanding, and he became king._

_Tonari, knowing the truth, took baby Zoë away, in the middle of the melee. She was afraid that Fiore, having killed her parents, would kill Zoë, too, to assure that his blood would succeed him. And the rightful blood heir should live on, in Tonari’s opinion. Tonari disappeared from the world’s view, married, and had a child herself and died telling her niece of her real lineage. Upon Fiore’s death, Zoë came forward and presented the proper evidence of her nobility—the Mark of Nova. Queen Zoë, beloved and honored, ruled Nova for a long time as her grandfather had—until her granddaughter Aidanne became of age._

_But this, as it appears, is not the end of the tale…_

_* * *_

Ami, Moira-Selene, Danie, and Duo opened their eyes.

“Wow,” Moira-Selene breathed. “That was intense…”

“That explains a lot of things,” Danie remarked. “In that case, Alex is not the rightful Sun Prince in the first place.”

Ingrid shook her head. “No, he is not. And it is imperative that you find the rightful one, my child, or you will suffer the most.” When Danie’s eyes widened in questioning, Ingrid added, “Aidanne is about to strip Alex of his powers soon. Without the rightful Prince to accept his destiny, you will receive all of it and possibly die.”

Danie didn’t like the word die, so she clenched a fist. “We will find him. Somehow.”

There was a knock on the open door that caught their attention.

“Lady Angelica,” Ingrid greeted her.

Angelica Wolfe, still in her school uniform, strode into the room, her sisters following. She crossed her arms and looked at Danie. Moira-Selene and Ami were astonished at their presence. Before anyone could utter a word, Angelica stopped in front of Danie.

“Danie-san,” she began, “it seems that we have a lot to catch you up on.”

Duo shot up to his feet. “You guys know who this missing Sun Prince is?” he demanded.

Angelica grinned at him. “We can do you one better. We already know _where_ he is.”


End file.
